Following an election season containing several contested elections as well as five total Honor and UJC referenda, the University Board of Elections released the results of the spring University elections Thursday evening.
Third-year College student Sarah Kenny defeated third-year Batten student Kelsey Kilgore in this year’s election for Student Council president, with Kenny earning 82.5 percent of the votes. A total number of 8,834 votes were counted in the race.
“I am humbled, I am honored, I am excited to get to work for the student body,” Kenny said. “I am incredibly blessed to have … the support from so many people throughout this campaign.”
Kenny said she received a great amount of support both personally and emotionally and is thankful to Kilgore for running in the campaign.
“I commend Kelsey for running and I think she really added a lot to this campaign,” Kenny said.
Kilgore declined to comment.
Turnout for the Student Council presidential election reached 38.8 percent of students casting a ballot in the election — a significant increase from 24.8 percent turnout in the 2016 race.
UBE Chair and third-year College student Casey Schmidt said overall voter turnout for the spring elections was 43 percent, which is higher than recent years.
“I think that one of the things I really wanted to focus on as chair this year was increasing voter turnout, increasing the number of candidates, generally increasing the election spirit — and I think that that really did manifest itself this year,” Schmidt said. “When you stepped on Grounds this year during election season, you knew an election was going on.”
UBE implemented several changes for this election cycle aimed at increasing participation, such as organizing polling stations.
Other Student Council positions included vice president for administration and vice president for organizations, which were won by second-year College student Alex Cintron and second-year College student Ty Zirkle, respectively. Both elections were uncontested.
Second- and Third-Year Council elections included several contested races.
First-year College student Omar Elhaj was elected Second-Year Council president with 61.6 percent of the vote. Second-Year Council vice president, which was uncontested, was won by first-year College student Allison Kammerman.
Third-Year Council president was won by second-year College student Galen Green with 52.6 percent of the vote, and second-year College student Rebecca Soistmann won Third-Year Council vice president with 55.1 percent of the vote.
Green said she wants Third-Year Class Council to amplify the voice of the third-year class to make more third-years feel welcome at the University.
“I see Class Council as power for good and for good change and I think that is what Rebecca and I really want to see,” Green said.
Soistmann said because she’s never campaigned for an elected position at the University, the campaign was difficult.
“I’ve had the pleasure of knowing a lot of people who have run for office before and they’ve been very helpful in guiding me through all the steps and recommending certain things,” Soistmann said. “I’ve had the most incredible network of people that have helped me with a majority of the footwork, so that was awesome.”
Third-year Batten students Malcolm Stewart and Diane D'Costa were elected Fourth-Year Trustees president and vice president, respectively. Both ran uncontested.
In addition to University leadership positions, several referenda from both Honor and UJC were on the ballot.
The Honor Democratization Amendment, which would lower the majority threshold needed to amend the Honor constitution from 60 percent to 55 percent, failed to pass, receiving only 46.62 percent of the vote.
UJC had four referenda on the ballot that were centered around clarifying ambiguities and language within the UJC constitution. All four referenda passed and received between 79 to 85 percent of the vote.
Full results:
Student Council
Student Council President - Sarah Kenny
Student Council Vice President for Administration - Alex Cintron
Student Council Vice President for Organizations - Ty Zirkle
Student Council School of Architecture Representative - No candidate
Student Council College of Arts & Sciences Representative - Eddie Lin, David Birkenthal, Austin Gogal, Cat Wyatt, Lukas Pietrzak, Ian Ware, Ellie Brasacchio, Allison Kammerman, Oliver Yan, Nathan John and Chi Chan
Student Council Undergraduate Batten Representative - No candidate
Student Council Graduate Batten Representative - Emmanuel Vega
Student Council Undergraduate Commerce Representative - No candidate
Student Council Graduate Commerce Representative - No candidate
Student Council Undergraduate Continuing & Professional Studies Representative - No candidate
Student Council Graduate Continuing & Professional Studies Representative - No candidate
Student Council Undergraduate Education Representative - Mollie Przybocki
Student Council Graduate Education Representative - Shannon Hill
Student Council Undergraduate Engineering & Applied Sciences Representative - Chapman Monroe, Shivani Saboo and Rohit Rustagi
Student Council Graduate Engineering & Applied Sciences Representative - Farzad Shafiei Dizaji
Student Council Medicine Representative - No candidate
Student Council Undergraduate Nursing Representative - Katie Yung
Student Council Graduate Nursing Representative - No candidate
Second-Year Council
Second-Year President - Omar Elhaj
Second-Year Vice President - Allison Kammerman
Third-Year Council
Third-Year President - Galen Green
Third-Year Vice President - Rebecca Soistmann
Fourth-Year Trustees
Fourth-Year Trustees President - Malcolm Stewart
Fourth-Year Trustees Vice President - Diane D'Costa
Honor Committee Representatives
Honor Architecture Representative - Kelly O'Meara and Kyle Gename
Honor Arts & Sciences Representatives - Attiya Latif, Sarah Killian, Devin Rossin, Jeffrey Warren and Christopher Benos
Honor Batten Representatives - Lucie Oken and Dijanni Hodges
Honor Commerce Representatives - Austin Goode and Zachary Diamond
Honor Continuing & Professional Studies Representative - George Maris
Honor Undergraduate Education Representative - Tori Spivey
Honor Graduate Education Representative - No candidate
Honor Engineering and Applied Sciences Representatives - Brandt Welch and William Rainey
Honor Medicine Representatives - Ory Streeter and Hannah Chacon
Honor Nursing Representative - Tamia Walker-Atwater
University Judicial Committee Representatives
Judiciary Architecture Representative - Jordan Richardson and James Strong
Judiciary Arts & Sciences Representative - Jordan Arnold, Jack Brake and Alexander Abramenko
Judiciary Batten Representative - Ellie Wood
Judiciary Commerce Representative - Kimberly Flintsch Medina and Stephen Lincoln
Judiciary Continuing & Professional Studies Representative - No candidate
Judiciary Undergraduate Education Representative - Al Ahmed
Judiciary Graduate Education Representative - Caroline Harvey
Judiciary Engineering & Applied Sciences Representative - Dan Donovan and Kevin Warshaw
Judiciary Medicine Representative - Brielle Gerry
Judiciary Nursing Representative - Lauren Brill
Architecture School Council
Architecture School Council President - Joshua Gritz
Architecture School Council Vice President - Jordan Richardson
Architecture School Council Secretary - Kelly O'Meara
Architecture School Council Treasurer - Kim Corral
Education Council
Education Council President - Sarah Benson
Education Council Vice President & Treasurer - Alexis Fowkes
Education Council Academic Affairs Chair - Katie Delis
Education Council Communications Chair - Emily O'Brien
Education Council Undergraduate Community Service Chair - Leah Coleman
Education Council Undergraduate Inter-school Relations Chair - No candidate
Education Council Undergraduate Social Chair - No candidate
Education Council Undergraduate Scholarship and Professional Development Chair - No candidate
Education Council Graduate Community Service Chair - Katrina Eichner
Education Council Graduate Inter-school Relations Chair - Ariel Cornett
Education Council Graduate Scholarship and Professional Development Chair - Alexandra Aldridge
Education Council Graduate Social Chair - Rose Sebastian
Student Health Insurance Committee Representative - Faith Peddie
Nursing Student Council
Nursing Student Council President - Elizabeth Cox
Nursing Student Council Vice President - Nicole Jefferson
Nursing Student Council Secretary - Elizabeth Weller
Nursing Student Council Treasurer - Hannah Bolton
Nursing Student Council Social Committee Chair - No candidate
Batten Undergraduate Council
Batten Undergraduate Council President - Robert McCarthy
Batten Undergraduate Council Treasurer - Sahil Grover
Batten Undergraduate Council Director of Communications - No candidate
Batten Graduate Council
Batten Graduate Council President - Maggie Gratz
Batten Graduate Council Secretary - No candidate
Batten Graduate Council Treasurer - No candidate
Batten Graduate Council Special Events Chairs - Katherine Brandon
Batten Graduate Council Community Engagement Chair - Katie Kozlowski
Engineering Student Council
Engineering Council Fourth-Year Board President - Emma Kopf
Engineering Student Council President - Frances Morales
Engineering Student Council Vice President - Mary-Michael Robertson
Engineering Student Council Secretary - Trisha Sinha
Engineering Student Council Treasurer - Christina Kim
Commerce Council
Commerce Council President - Lauren Fogel
Commerce Council Vice President - Kimberly Flintsch Medina
Commerce Council Treasurer - Grace Zeng
College Council
College Council President - Emily Vaughan
College Council Vice President - Parker Moore
College Council Secretary - Shelby Slotter
College Council Treasurer - No candidate
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